Sapphire Drifting
by Stahlfeder
Summary: A year after the Events of Jupiter Ascending, Jupiter is on the hunt for other reincarnations to bring into power, to help further her cause. She finds Sapphire, reincarnated heir to a smaller family fortune, brought on to help fight against the harvest. - Hopefully one of 3 stories that will focus on different reincarnations recruited by Jupiter. - Rated M for unknown future
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

The jungle forest was hot and damp as Sapphire dodged through the trees. Wet leaves slapped into her legs as she sprinted as fast as she could manage in the heavy gravity of the planet. Her legs felt like lead, and the air, with a slightly higher concentration of oxygen than she was used to on earth, was making her light headed, an odd combination. On one hand, she felt like she was being pulled inexorability into the ground, and on the other, she felt like she might float away at any moment.

Her chasers were still following her – she could hear them somewhere far behind, but she couldn't figure out why they hadn't caught her yet. Their hunting cats could navigate the foliage with ease, and both the humans and the animals were in better physical shape than she, as well as being used to the gravity that she was struggling so much with.

Yet she was pulling ahead, the leaves and plants a blue and purple blur, with dots of flowers in greens and reds and yellows.

Her breath was coming ragged now, a stitch in her side was nearing a point that she could no longer ignore. She approached a shallow creek, the bank was muddy, but she thought maybe – just maybe - she could use it to hide her tracks.

She splashed through the water, her leather boots sinking into the silt, s_chlorping _as she pulled each foot out. The water came up to her waist as she crossed though the deepest part, making the slog even more difficult in tandem with the gravity. She splashed to the other side, thankful for the cooling effect of the water, and took three or four steps up the bank to where the ground was dry(ish) and solid.

Glancing backward to check if her pursuers had found her yet, heart pounding in her chest in fear, but they still seemed to be moving cautiously.

One fleeting rational part of her mind wondered why the hunters were taking so long, moving so slowly, but she was really more interested in eluding them.

She then carefully walked backwards in her own foot prints, until she was properly back into the water. The creek was moving swiftly enough that her footprints under the water were washed away in seconds. Hopefully the tracks on bank would make her followers think she had gone in that direction, deeper into the jungle.

Back into the water, she dove under the sunshine, holding her breath, and swimming along with the current as far as she could. She remembered from watching a documentary years ago about tracking dogs – that they could scent odours in the air – and that someone breaking their trail in a creek didn't actually work, since their trail persisted in the air above the water. Sapphire hoped that if she swam under the water, she might actually be able to throw them off.

She stayed underwater as long as she could, kicking frantically, her eyes stinging slightly in the murky water. She was able to stay submerged longer than she expected, but once her lungs started burning, she popped up with a splash and looked wildly around.

She hard turned a couple bends in her escape, and was an indeterminate distance away from her departure point. The jungle looked like more of the same – indigo plants and vines and great trees with rough mocha coloured bark. Small primates not too dissimilar to lemurs leaped through the branches, completely uncaring of her presence.

She might have been far enough to get away safely, but in her frightened state, she decided it was better safe than sorry, and she took another deep breath and vanished under the water again.

The creek was moving faster now, and the silty bed was becoming more rocky. She passed by startled fish, long phosphorescent eels, and something resembling a cross between a spider and a shark scrambling along the rocks. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she couldn't help but turn to look at it as the current carried her by.

The spider fish frightened her, not knowing its place in the ecosystem, it was truly something worthy of nightmares. It had stalk like eyes that followed her as she glided past. It lifted up its legs and drifted along side her, seemingly as curious of her as she was scared of it.

It lost interest in her fairly quickly, and once it grabbed back onto the rocks to anchor itself, Sapphire felt safe in taking her eyes off of it. She redirected her attention to the path ahead of her.

The current had picked up, and Sapphire noticed that the creek was suddenly much larger, and the bed of it was more rock than mud. She surfaced again to get some air.

Her clothing, a mix of leather and heavy woven fabric was thoroughly water-logged, and she was struggling now to stay above water. Her boots were laced on, so she couldn't kick them off.

A roaring filled her ears, and with a jab of fear, she kicked herself higher out of the water to look ahead. She couldn't see very well, but it _appeared_ to be a great big honkin' cliche. A waterfall. How big it was, she didn't know, but she did know that she needed out of that creek, and she need out _now_.

She frantically cut towards the shore, which was suddenly much farther away than when she had started this escape. She tried to push off the bottom, but it was just deep enough that her toes simply slipped off the rocks ineffectually.

She thrashed in a near panic as she was swept mercilessly towards her doom. She no longer cared about the less immediate threat of her pursuers, of whom she was sure she had left behind. She only cared now about getting out of the water before she was thrown over a cliff and pummelled to death under the weight of the crushing water. She struggled, and slowly inched towards the edge. In a moment of clarity, she both remembered the trick of swimming with the current on an angle (which was mostly happening now anyways), and also thought to intentionally dive under water for a moment to properly kick off the rocks.

The manoeuvre gained her a great deal of precious distance, putting her only feet from the shoreline, where the water was shallower and the flora trailing into the water from the jungle. As she scrambled into a more upright position, she could see that the waterfall fed into a great red lake. She slips and slid on the rocks, desperately trying to get out before she went over, but the water was still pulled inexorably at her legs.

She stumbled and fell to her knees, and got pulled along. She cried out in pain as her leg smashed against the corner of a large rock, and she groped wildly at _anything_ that might stop her from being swept over the lip of the waterfall. Her hands found a trailing vine, a flexible switch not unlike a willow whip back home. She grasped it in desperation, and for a half second it held her weight, before her hand slid along it, and a sharp pain in her palm made her gasp in surprise and release it.

She felt a moment of weightlessness before gravity took over, and she plummeted over the edge.

It a short drop, all things considered, she only fell around twenty feet before she hit the water at the base of the waterfall, but she didn't know it at the time. All she knew was that she was going to die in about three seconds.

She was driven down, down down, almost the bottom of the lake, the pale pink haze of bubbles and water foam filling her vision. If she'd been in less dire straits, she probably would have marvelled over the strangeness of _red_ water, but at the moment she was more concerned with finding _up_ and getting out from under the torrent she was trapped under.

She was tossed about, bouncing into rocks again and again as she struggled to escape, collecting bruises and bumps along the way. She finally managed to wedge her feet onto a boulder, and launched herself like a rocket _away_ from both the danger zone of the waterfall and the rocks that represented _down._

The surface sparkled high above her, and as her lungs burned and screamed for air, she couldn't help but think about what had gotten herself into this mess in the first place.

_Aliens._

God-damned, space-faring, evil, eternally youthful, genetic splicing _aliens._

If she got out of this alive, she was going to find the nearest laser gun-thing, and walk up to the bastard that had sent these hunters on her, and _shoot him in the god-damned face._

That and her own damn insatiably curiosity, that made her want to visit this planet in the first place. But it was more the aliens that pissed her off.

Her head broke the surface, and she gasped for air, coughing and choking as the water splashed into her mouth while she desperately filled her lungs.

She cried as she gasped, exhausted and frustrated, and just wishing for all of this to be over. She couldn't tread very well, heavy as her clothing was, and between that and the lack of natural buoyancy of the water, she struggled to stay afloat.

She wanted to rest, to sleep and cry, but she couldn't, not yet. She had to find her way to shore, and find a safe place to hide until her bodyguard and travel companion, Faize, could come find her. She had a tracker pinned inside her vest, which would supposedly lead him to her.

As she picked a trajectory to take her to shore, she swam as quickly as she could without expending much energy that she was so very low on.

Sapphire had no idea if there were predators in the water, and was at the point where she just didn't care anymore. She dragged her sopping wet body onto the rocky shore, and once she was clear of the open water, she flopped onto her back, breathing heavily.

The red sky above her was getting dark. The blue sun was setting, painting the sky in orange and yellow and green. It was a bizarre blend, something she hadn't gotten used to in the past week she'd spent here. She hadn't gotten used to any of it. The cool alien creatures were neat, she loved those, but the purple plant life, the red skies and water, and the _green_ sunsets. She didn't even know how that worked, red and blue made purple, not green.

Her heart was slowly returning to a normal pace, and as the water set in, she began to feel cold. Even with the humidity in the air around her, she knew that as night fell, she would do well to get out of her wet clothes.

With a sigh of frustration and exhaustion, she hauled herself to her feet and stumbled back into the bush and out of the open air. No longer concerned with speed – she was sure she had left her pursuers far behind – she began looking for some sort of shelter to get her through the night. She didn't know much about the fauna of the jungle, she had spent most of her time getting to know the culture and town life of the people of the planet. Were there predators that would come out at night? The town folk had the hunting cats, medium sized felines that resembled a cross between a lion and a leopard. They were domesticated, but they had probably come from some sort of wild creature, but where those creatures still around? Dogs had come from wolves, so what did the Draft come from?

As she wandered through, climbing over small fallen logs, and navigating around great obstructions of ferns and prickly plants, she couldn't help but wonder about other, more insidious threats. The jungles back on earth were filled with venomous insects and reptiles. She'd seen insects floating about, but nothing particularly notable had given her problems. Did the animals here display bright colours to warn away predators? Or would they blend in?

She kept looking for a shelter – a cave or hole, or she'd even just settle for a particularly thickly leaved tree. It had a tendency to rain in the night, that at least she had learned in her time here, and she wanted to be under cover and drying off before that happened.

She had no allusions to be able to start a fire, without matches or lighters or a fire starter, she doubted she had the skills to start one from scratch. She knew the theory of starting a fire with a bow, but she also didn't have a knife or any dry wood.

She _might_ be able to find some flint-like rock if she went back to the lake, but she had little faith in that. Faize would find her before it came to that, she had faith.

If he hadn't gotten detained. She froze as the thought occurred to her. He was a skilled fighter, quick and resourceful, but he was fallible, just like any other living creature. He could get overwhelmed. Actually, getting overwhelmed would be the surest way to beat him in a fight – he was a rogue, an assassin. He was used to one-on-one fighting, and excelled at sneaking and stealth, but he was never trained to fight groups. He was a spy.

Sapphire shivered.

She had to believe that he was okay. She had to trust that he would come for her. Jupiter had hired him to protect her, and Sapphire _had_ to have faith.

She didn't know if she could survive otherwise.

Her throat tight, she resisted the urge to just give up and cry. She was stronger than that – she wasn't helpless. She was capable at least, of finding shelter and keeping herself safe. She could do it.

She continued her search, no longer even aware of where the lake was anymore, or which way was civilization, she only cared to find a shelter.

The sun was very nearly set, and the night was following swiftly. Through the canopy she could see the black sky, and the stars slowly becoming visible as a the sun slipped under the horizon. She didn't know the constellations that the locals used for navigation, but she _had_ learned about the helix nebula, it was sort of this hemispheres equivalent of a north star. They of course, didn't call it the Helix nebula – that was earths name for it – but they referred to it simply as 'The Eye'.

She finally glimpsed it through a couple of branches, glowing so far off that she could barely see the distinctive eye shape. The Eye was east.

Which didn't help her at all. She had no idea, not even an inkling, what direction she had fled from the town. She had a terrible sense of direction at the best of times, and on an alien planet, she had even less of one.

She sighed. She was well and truly stranded here, and there was nothing she could do about it. She flashed back to high school science class, where she doodled in her notebooks while her teacher droned on about how sailors could use the night sky to navigate. It had confused her at the time, so she made no effort to understand and comprehend. She was regretting now, her lack of interest. At the time she couldn't conceive that she might need to use those skills.

She couldn't see the sun anymore, but the last of the light in the sky vanished, taking away the dusk, and becoming true night. The planet had a pair of moons, but they were either in the wrong phase or wrong rotation, and were not offering any aide in the form of additional light.

She stood, shivering and frightened, while her eyes adjusted. Her neck hairs rose as she imagined all the potential dangers around her. She envisioned critters and predators climbing out of their burrows and nests and caves, all of them smelling in the air a scared, defenceless human.

She had nothing to help her. She had lost her bag in the initial firefight, and all of her supplies and essentials had been in it. She _had_ a gun and knife and currency, but the gun was most definitely _not_ local tech, so she had chosen to tuck it away in her rucksack for safe keeping. Faize had suggested she pick up some local weaponry to protect herself with, but when they tried, they found the local laws made it hard for the average citizen to acquire one.

In hindsight, the enquiry may have been what had brought her to the attention of the local political power. In any case, word had trickled down (up?) to Ardest Rakelm, heir to the planet, before she had come along and taken it away from him.

And now she was running for her life from his cronies, stranded in an alien jungle, cold and tired and hungry. She had just purchased the knife, a hunters knife, and was about to attach it to her belt when she and Faize had been ambushed. In the chaos she lost her bag, gotten separated from him, and been driven out of the town walls.

Walls. The town had walls. Why would the town have walls? Was there something out there, out here, that was a threat?

She needed a shelter, and she needed it now.

Her eyes had adjusted enough now that she could see a little bit. Enough to see shapes at least. As she began to search again, she noticed small lights, things glowing. At first she thought they were something like fireflies, but as her curiosity got the best of her caution, she learned that the plant life had small amounts of phosphorescence decorating their stems and leaves. It was not much, but as the light had waned, they had come to light, slowly releasing their stored light, getting brighter and brighter as she moved along. It wasn't nearly enough to light her way, but it was certainly enough to help.

She moved carefully as she walked, wishing she had better night vision, looking desperately for a dearth of light somewhere that might mean a cave or hole. Around her, the night was waking up, she could hear faint cries of various critters as they moved around in the dark. She heard the chattering of something in the trees above her, and the croaking of some alien frogs all around.

She spotted an odd formation, a blue glow running at an angle, which was unusual. Most plants were either vertical trees reaching to the sky, or meandering vines and curved fronds. Off to her left, was a thick, blue irregular glow, that stretched on and on, in the same general direction. Underneath it was more of a similar glow, more orange-red, but soft, in contrast to most of the plants that had distinct lines or dots.

As she moved closer to investigate, it became clear that the blue glow was some sort of fungus or moss growing on a great fallen tree. Alive, the tree must have been a hundred feet tall, and three or four arm lengths around. At the base of it, the ground was soft, and it seemed that the massive height of the tree had been too much for the roots to hold onto, and the entire behemoth had simply fallen over, ripping the roots out of the soft ground.

The plant life and other trees had prevented it from falling completely over, leaving it at an angle, with everything directly below it starved for sunlight. As she investigated further, trying to ignore the grumbling echo of her stomach, she saw that the giant had caused some collateral damage in its fall, and a few smaller trees had been knocked down with it, pinned to the ground, and holding it up off of it.

She had a shelter. It wasn't properly enclosed, but she had a sloping ceiling and the hard wood of the smaller trees as a wall. It was open on either side, but she though if she could rip off some branches of the dead trees, she might be able to block off one side at least, giving her only one direction to face trouble from.

It wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing.

The orange glow underneath the tree turned out to be actual moss. It was odd, bright orange, but it was soft and almost dry. It glowed faintly, throwing an eerie light on everything above it, but it was enough for her to see what she was doing.

Sapphire very much wanted to curl up and cry herself into oblivion, but to give up now was to kill herself. Her left knee ached terribly, and her right hand – the one she had grabbed at the vines before going over the water fall was stinging and throbbing with every heart-beat. Everything hurt, and she was sure she was a patchwork of bruises, but she still had work to do before she could rest. Then she could sit and maybe dry herself out and maybe – just maybe – she'd survive the night.

She pushed aside all of the pain and fatigue, and set to work at breaking branches to make her barrier, all the while, her neck prickled as she tried very hard not to imagine the things that may be creeping up on her as worked.


	2. Chapter 1 - Taken

**Chapter 1**

Sapphire sipped her coffee as she strolled down the icy street, reading her facebook as she walked. On her way home from her last day of school for the semester, she was happy and light-hearted, as she had two weeks of freedom to look forward to. She enjoyed her classes well enough, but philosophy and english and history got tedious over time, and she was excited to have some time for her own projects for a while. She hadn't seen her parents in close to a month, and the latest crunch for finals had forced her to ignore her friends in favour of studying.

But now, it was all over. She could relax, catch up on her shows, work on the novella she wanted to write, maybe go see a movie or two with her friends.

As she scrolled down her Facebook feed, her phone had a moment of lag before it popped up that she was receiving a phone call.

**Clover Medical Clinic** displayed urgently on her screen, and for a second she was confused as to why they were calling her. She'd gone in a few weeks prior for a routine check-up, but it had gone fine, no anomalies, nothing wrong.

She swiped to answer. They wouldn't be calling without reason.

"Hello?"

"Is this Sapphire Nelson?"

"Yes it is," she replied politely.

"Hi Ms. Nelson, this is Jessica calling from the Clover Medical Clinic, can I please get some information for security purposes?"

"Uh, sure."

"What's your birth date and middle name?"

"October 17th, 1990. Middle name is Gloria."

"Thank you so much, one moment." The receptionists voice was sickeningly sweet and professional. It was irrational, but Sapphire immediately disliked her.

"Thank you for your patience," she said, "I've got some blood-work here back from the lab, and Doctor Singh would like to discuss it with you. When would you like to make an appointment?"

Blood work. Of course. Sapphire remembered now, they had drawn blood as a part of the check-up, but it had been such a non-event that she had forgotten about it.

"Is something wrong? Can't you just tell me now?"

"I'm sorry, we can't discuss confidential matters over the telephone."

Sapphire ground her teeth. It wasn't a huge inconvenience to make an appointment, nor was it difficult to get to the office, as it was just down the street from her apartment, but she had been looking forward to doing nothing _adult_ for at least a week.

"But you just verified that I am who I say I am."

"Yes, with information that many people surely know, and regardless it is still policy not to discuss confidential information over the phone." There was a definite edge to the receptionist's voice now. Sapphire decided not to push further. She sighed audibly.

"I'm free for the next two weeks. Whenever Dr. Singh is free I can come in. Just not in the mornings, It's my vacation, and I want to sleep in."

"Of course, understandable," the woman said, and Sapphire heard some rustling on the other line.

She reached an intersection, and the noise of traffic forced her to push the phone against her ear, and plug the other with her coffee holding and after she pressed the signal to walk.

"Actually Ms. Nelson, we have an opening this afternoon at 3pm, we had a cancellation, and Dr. Singh is free then."

Sapphire pulled the phone away to check the time. 2:24. She had more than enough time. She was close enough to home that she could easily drop off her backpack and finish her coffee before ducking back out the visit the doctors.

"Done. I'll be there."

"Wonderful," she said, her high pitch grating on Sapphires nerves, "We'll see you then."

"Bye," she hung up the phone and sighed again. At least she was getting the visit out of the way now, rather than interrupting her precious leisure time later in the week, but she was still miffed that she had to take _any_ time away from it. She had plans to curl up in bed and read for the rest of the afternoon before she went out to dinner with her friend. Now she'd have only enough time to get home and have a shower after her appointment before she had to head down to the restaurant.

It was a short walk home, fuelled by irritation, and once through the door to her small suite, she tossed her backpack in a heap to her couch, and flopped on the cushioned next to it, to grumpily finish drinking her coffee before leaving again. She didn't bother with taking her shoes or jacket off, though she did quickly fix her skewed and loose ponytail.

Her apartment was small, just a one bedroom with hardly any kitchen, and a tiny bathroom without even a bathtub. Her living room was acceptable, enough space for a couch, coffee table and a rocking chair that had once been her Opa's, but that was about it. She was lucky enough to have her parents paying her rent, while her student loan paid for school itself. The frugal apartment let her spend a bit more of her living expenses that came with her loan on her hobbies, and let her eat out more often with her working friends who didn't have to budget as much as she did. It was an acceptable trade off, even if she did get frustrated sometimes trying to cook with limited counter-space, or when all sh really wanted was a long, relaxing bath, but she made do. It could be worse.

She checked the clock on her phone, 2:51. Time to go. She'd be a few minutes early, and she'd probably still have to wait twenty minutes to actually see the doctor, like usual, but she hated being late. She pulled her purse out of her backpack, slung it over her shoulder cross-wise and headed out the door.

It was a brief walk, which she made even briefer by cutting through an alley between streets. She could either walk all the way down to the light, make two rights and end up on the street behind her apartment building, or she could walk away from the light a half block and take the back-alley, and come out just a minute from the clinic. The alley was a simple car access to the parking lots to a pair or apartment building, and while it was less recommended to walk through there at night (she still did), during the bright, brisk spring afternoon, she felt more than safe making the shortcut. She didn't even contemplate whether or not she should – she just did.

She was halfway down the narrow road, when she heard light, quick footsteps behind her. She glanced backwards to see who was approaching her, and to see which side she should move off to, to let them pass, but was startled as the person behind her was right in her _face_ when she turned.

Sapphire squeaked in surprise, and no little fear, as the man grabbed at her arm. She had never been attacked before, and she clutched her purse close to her reflexively.

The man looked _off_, but she wasn't sure exactly how, other than his painfully pale skin. Her first thought was that he must be some sort of albino – he had pale, colourless skin, but his eyes were a yellow green and his hair was dark under the baseball hat he wore.

His clothing was odd as well, looking almost like layered black carbon fibre.

"Wait!" He rasped, as she tried to pull away, "It's a trap!"

"Let go of me!" She tried again to pull out of his grip, but his hand gripped tighter, and she was unable to escape.

"You're in danger," he growled, "I'm trying to help you!" He pulled her away from the street, into the parking lot.

A jab of fear ran through her body. She almost couldn't believe it, she'd spent her entire life in this city, and she had never had any truly life threatening encounters. It was a sudden and jarring that she wasn't immune to the dangers of city life.

"Let go of me or I'll scream!" She threatened, trying to sound braver than she felt. He held her with only one hand, but her struggle failed to break away. It suddenly occurred to her that she should probably fight back.

But what if she fought back and made him angry? He was obviously stronger than she was, and she had no idea what his intentions were. Was he just crazy? A rapist? Was he taking her somewhere to mug her out of sight? A million scenarios ran through her head.

He whipped around to face her, his eyes scanning the empty alley. Before she could draw a breath to scream, he pulled a small object out of his jacket and slapped it across her face. She tried to flinch away, but he was faster than she was. The object covered her mouth and held it immobile. With her free hand she grabbed at it, but it was as if he had glued a sheet of plastic on her face. She could still breathe through her nose, but the only sound was a high pitched squeal at the back of her throat.

_Now_ she was ready to fight back. She lunged into him, swinging her free hand in a fist towards his face. It was her off-hand, so it didn't have a lot of weight or aim behind it. He dodged it easily, though he looked surprised that she had taken the swing. He grabbed her arm as she was off balance, and ushered her even more quickly into the dark gap between the houses. She fought the entire time, lashing out with her legs, trying to make _any_ noise. She kicked out at one of those old-school metal garbage cans, trying to knock it over, but he saw what she was doing and yanked her backward and into the air. She missed the can by half an inch.

She was crying now, silent tears running down her face. She was overpowered, and she knew it. She wasn't ready to give up just yet, and continued to struggle, but her strength was waning, and her initial adrenaline rush was wearing off.

He pushed her up against the fake brick siding, and pinned her arms above her head with his left hand.

She pushed as hard as she could against his arm, but he held her easily.

"Stop fighting!" he said, in a low and urgent voice, "I'm not going to hurt you!"

It was true – he hadn't hurt her, unless you counted holding onto her too hard – but she wasn't going to take that as a signal to let him win.

"Let me go!" She tried to yell, though it just came out as 'Mnng Mn Nnn!'

"You said that already," he sighed. "Look, I can let you go, but I am _actually _here to help you, and I need you to hear me out."

"Mm mnn mngmmn."

He looked her in the eyes, his own yellow-green eyes searching hers. Sapphire noticed that his pupils were actually slitted, like a cats, and there was a tiny metal object implanted on the outside of his eyes on either side. His nose bridge was also strangely wide, his eyes set slightly farther apart than normal. A new wave of fear swept over her. He was some sort of crazy body mutilation rapist, or maybe some deformed homeless person who was going to mug her for her money.

"I've been monitoring you while I waited for the best time to approach you," he started, taking out a small item out of another pocket. It was about the size of an iPhone, but it as a blue-ish silver in colour, and seemed to be completely transparent in the centre. He tapped a silver button on the outside of the device with his thumb, and the 'screen' lit up, showing a small control panel.

She moaned in fear. Worse than a random attack, he was a stalker.

"Did you know your doctors office is closed on Fridays after 2pm?"

She froze. He was right. She hadn't even thought about it, had just gone along with it. She had had trouble scheduling her original appointment last time because her school schedule didn't sync up with their weird hours.

She shook her head. He was just trying to get into her head. They probably changed their hours, and she hadn't known.

He narrowed his eyes.

"Watch."

He pressed a quick series of buttons on the device, then flipped it around so she could see.

It was a video, taken from just outside the medical clinic, through half-closed blinds. Despite the fact that it was taken through a window, she could hear the audio quite clearly.

The interior of the office was dark, all of the lights shut off, except for a small lap at the desk. A woman stood with a phone pressed to her ear. She had a creepy plastic smile as she spoke into the receiver. There were odd notations on the screen, foreign text scrolling along the bottom.

"Is this Sapphire Nelson?"

There was a pause, as the woman stared off into space. A circle formed around the woman's head, and a readout popped up next to it that Sapphire couldn't read.

"Hi Ms. Nelson, this is Jessica calling from the Clover Medical Clinic, can I please get some information for security purposes?"

The woman looked at a device that looked something like the one her captor held, but larger. A box formed around her own tablet object, with more text she couldn't identify.

"What's your birth date and middle name?"

As the woman spoke, what Sapphire could only call a scan line, began to run across the screen. When it got to the woman, she disappeared, being replaced by a grotesque creature that _appeared_ to be an alien.

"Thank you so much, one moment." The alien was very similar to the typical sci-fi 'grey' alien that was in every other alien movie ever. It reached down on lanky pink arm and grabbed a handful of paper, rustling it around to no effect.

"Thank you for your patience," it said, its mouth moving out of sync with the words coming out of it. "I've got some blood work here back from the lab, and Doctor Singh would like to discuss it with you. When would you like to make an appointment?"

He pulled the device away.

"What the hell is this?" She tried to ask angrily, but she had (somehow) forgotten that she was still gagged, and she only succeeded in making muffled angry noises.

"Hold on." He pressed a few more buttons, this time on a wristband on his forearm under his jacket. Sapphire suddenly felt her jaw have some freedom, it was no longer locked in place. She tried to lick her lips, but the gag was still covering her mouth – it was just stretching to accommodate her.

Immediately she tried to scream, taking a deep breath and belting out the loudest, shrillest scream she could muster.

It came out as a whisper. It was like a nightmare, one she had had many times before, where she was being pursued, and tried to run and scream for help – her legs moving like molasses and her voice not working.

She started to shake all over again.

"Hey. Hey," he said, crouching slightly so he could make eye contact with her bowed head. He lifted her chin so she was looking forward.

"I told you I wasn't going to hurt you," he said gruffly, "And now I'm promising you that I won't _ever_ hurt you. I just couldn't let you scream and make a commotion."

"Please let me go," she said, trying to talk in a normal tone of voice, but again, it came out barely above a whisper. "What have you done to me?" She tried, ineffectually, to pull her hands out from under his, but his grip was as firm as ever.

"It's a silencer, and it allows me to completely silence a target, or control the volume in which they speak. I needed a chance to explain all of this to you, without you causing trouble."

He actually looked mildly chagrined as he explained it to her, but all she could think was the word '_Target_'. She was his _target_.

"What was that video?"

"That was a keeper. It had been sent to retrieve you. My employer asked me to find you and bring you to her when the time was opportune, and also to protect you from the keepers, of whom she is _not_ affiliated with."

"What did it – and you – want with me?"

He smiled, smirked more like, a flash of fang visible behind his white lips.

"Well, the keepers employer likely wants to kill you. My employer, her majesty, wants to rescue you – and maybe even ally with you."

"Ally? Rescue? _Kill?!_ What the _hell_ is going on? Let me go!"

He sighed. "All right, I can see this isn't going to work. I don't want to hurt you, but this is for your own good."

"_What?!"_

He released her pinned arms, but before she could even think about making a run for it, she felt a sharp pinprick in her neck, and her whole world went dark. 


	3. Chapter 2 - Introductions

**Chapter 2**

She awoke an indeterminate time later, in a small cramped space. As her brain slowly fought free from whatever she had been roofied with, she gazed around her to take it in.

She was on a bed of some sort, but she didn't have the strength yet to prop herself up see exactly what it was. There was a metal table with a pair of sloped chairs on either side, with a plate and cup on top. The walls were stark, a blue-ish grey colour, and they also appeared to be made of metal panels.

There was what looked like a door frame, but the door had no knob or handle that she could see.

Her blurry vision was clearing, and mobility was returning to her limbs, working their way from her fingertips inwards. She wiggled her toes, and found that she was still wearing shoes, and as she heaved herself up, her limbs feeling like lead, she saw that she was thankfully still fully clothed.

She did a quick internal evaluation, and aside from sore wrists and _being drugged_, she felt like she was okay. She rubbed at her bruised wrists, and swung her legs over the edge of the bed to look around better.

There was a window behind her, but it was covered in the same metal the walls were made of. Otherwise, the room was bare. The bed had very military sheets on it, plain, functional, and unadorned.

As she stumbled to her feet, she realized that she wasn't frightened. She was curious, and feeling cautious, but she didn't feel scared, and as she noticed, she found she couldn't even get worried about _that._

"The bastard sedated me!" She said out loud. She sagged with relief when she found she wasn't gagged, and could speak freely. Indignant, she took a deep breath and yelled as loud as she could.

"LET ME OUT OF HERE YOU FREAK!"

Immediately the door to her left slid open.

"You are free to leave whenever you wish," a soft mechanical voice said, "But you are asked to refrain from attacking or harming yourself or the crew."

"The crew? _What?_" she said incredulously, though she did inch towards the open door.

"You are aboard the cargo-vessel S_kyward Ocean the Fastest_, which has a crew size of 32. There was currently 4 guests on board, bringing the total body count to 36."

"Who the hell names their ship Skyward Ocean the Fastest?" She wondered out loud.

"Someone who's native language is not the same as yours," came a now familiar voice, as the man who had attacked her earlier strode confidently into her room.

"Get away from me," she began, as she backed away. He stopped approaching her as soon as she began moving away. He held up his hands to show he carried nothing in with him.

"I'm not going to hurt you, it's okay," he said. He was still wearing the ragged baseball cap and the not-carbon-fiber jacket.

"Who are you?" She asked, again noticing the eerie lack of fear.

"My name is Faize Tanyir. I am an Ossumur-human splice, and I am a spy, assassin, and now, your bodyguard."

"Spy. Bodyguard. _Assassin?_" She said, wanting to get angry and scared, but unable. "Did you drug me?" She demanded. "Wait, Splice?"

He chuckled, a wry laugh.

"First – Yes, I was a spy and an assassin under the Abrasax rule, but since their fall I've become a mercenary for hire. Her Majesty Jupiter Jones, re-incarnated Heir of the Abrasax fortune, hired me to find you, Sapphire Nelson. So, now I am a bodyguard, until she sees fit to sever my contract, or one of us dies."

He strode to the blocked of window, and swiped right along the bottom. The panel slid to the side, much as the door had, to reveal a starry night sky, unlike any she had ever seen. Despite the unsettled feeling she had, she couldn't help but gape in wonder and the Earth floating in space.

"That's earth." She said flatly, unsure if she should believe. But she had to – there was no way even the most high tech prank could pull something like this off. She pressed her hands against the glass? No, it wasn't glass, she noticed, but something else. It was slightly warm to the touch.

The planet was in a half phase, Europe and Africa fallen into shadow, but North and South America remained bathed in sunlight. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

"And yes," Faize said softly from her side, "I knocked you unconscious with a powerful sedative to get you here unharmed. It has a side effect – and intentional one, mind you – of suppressing fear and anger for a short time " She flinched, not realizing that he had moved closer to her.

"When will it wear off?"

He spread his hands out in front of him, in what seemed to be a gesture like a shrug, "It depends, it will wear off faster the more your body tries to produce the chemicals linked to the emotions, like adrenaline. The drug burns it off, but can only eliminate so much before it is used up."

She was silent a moment as she watched the planet. The ship – the space ship! - she was on seemed to be flying in orbit, more and more of the Americas were becoming visible.

"What are you?" She asked quietly, not sure if she really _wanted _ the answer, but at the same time, she needed to know. "You're not human? What's a splice?"

He nodded slightly. "Watch."

She turned to look at him, rather than out of the corner of her eyes.

He reached up to the baseball cap, which now, in light of the space ship, looked very out of place. He pulled it off, the hair attached to the cap itself.

Sapphires eyes widened in surprise as he revealed short, shaggy white hair, with _actual_ spots. He then pulled a cloth from one of his many pockets, and quickly scrubbed his face with it. When he pulled it away, the cloth was stained with white, and on his face, a pale pattern of blue-gray spots to match the ones in his hair. They were smaller above his eyes, but grew in size until they grew into the larger ones that adorned his hair. His ears were mostly human looking, though they seemed set differently, and could actually move a little bit, in ways that Sapphire's definitely couldn't.

"What," She stated, not knowing what else to say. She was standing next to an _alien._ An alien that looked like it was part cat. She now realized that his eyes didn't just _look_ slitted, they _were_ slitted. His wide-set nose made sense now, and as she looked closer, his eyes were just _slightly_ angled. Had he used the face paint to hide the more extreme features? It made sense. Like this, there was no way he could pass for human, but with his disguise, he could easily, as long as no one looked too closely.

"I am part Ossumur, part human. Ossumur would most closely resemble something like a cheetah or leopard from your planet, built for speed, agility and cold weather." He smiled, showing a set of very much like her own, save for the pronounced canines.

"How can you be human?" A tiny shiver a fear raced down her back, and with relief she noted that the sedative seemed to be wearing off.

"It's a bit of a long story, would you care to sit? There's food on the table, Her majesty brought some from earth."

Curious, she tore her eyes away from both the glory of the earth outside and the strangeness of the alien before her to investigate the 'earth food'.

It was a thin plastic bag, from a chain fast food franchise. She couldn't help but bark a laugh when she recognized the yellow and green _Subway_ logo. Inside was a sandwich wrapped in the trademark paper, a to-go soup bowl and a fountain drink, condensation still clinging to the wax cup.

"Subway?" She laughed, "Your queen picked me up Subway?"

The absurdity was too great – she dissolved into a fit of giggles at the sight of her regal lunch offering.

Faize smiled slightly, but didn't join in with her laughter. "Her Majesty is from your planet, though her home is far from yours. She was aware of your situation, and it was she who advised me to wait until after you had completed your schooling before bringing you to see her."

That was enough to stop her giggles.

"Your queen is from earth?" she asked incredulously, "How does that even work?"

In answer, Faize gestured at the table, and seated himself in the opposite chair.

Sapphire shrugged, and joined him, but when she reached for her sandwich, found that there was a force field around it.

"What? How do I?"

He reached across and touched the top of the field, bringing up a set of options. A couple buttons presses, and the shield dropped, giving her access to her food. "I put the food in stasis to keep it fresh until you were ready for it."

"Thanks," she said, then paused, "Is it safe?"

Faize laughed loudly, "Of course it is, why would I do it if it wasn't? I told you I wasn't here to hurt you, and I meant it."

Sapphire sighed. She was hungry, and the sub smelled good, and while she _wanted_ to trust the alien before her, she couldn't be sure if that was her actual feelings, or the sedative repressing her more helpful instincts.

"Can you just... Explain everything? Please?"

He nodded.

"Many millions of years ago, a race of creatures – humans – evolved on a planet within this galaxy, and grew, expanded and learned the secrets of space flight. As they began to explore, and develop faster-than-light travel, they found themselves alone within the galaxy. Other planets supported life, in fact, hundreds and hundreds of planets supported life, but none had yet created a sentient species for them to communicate or trade with.

"Around the same time, the humans found that there was too much to do – to explore and expand and to learn in a lifetime, or even in two or three lifetimes, and began to covet and nurture science that extended those lives. They researched ways to stay alive and healthy longer and longer, and eventually found the secret, but it required a key ingredient."

Sapphire nodded as she chewed. She had given up trying to resist the allure of the food, and was eating as she listened.

"And thus began their business model. They expanded their own race, first with colonies on nearby planets, encouraging people to live and be merry, but soon moved on to what would become their long term plans.

"They began using their incredible, profound knowledge of genetics and evolution, to seed planets, splicing their DNA patterns into compatible creatures, so that they could eventually – with their guidance - over a few _million_ years, evolve into more humans.

"And then, as individuals were living millions of lifetimes with their scientific breakthroughs, they would harvest this key ingredient from planets once the seeding had reached its best yield."

Sapphire shook her head and took a sip of the soda before speaking. "I don't get it. What was this key ingredient? Why did they have to wait millions of years to harvest it?"

Faize looked at her, raising a bushy eyebrow.

"Don't you see? The ingredient they needed to live forever – was humans."

She choked and nearly spat out her food. A wave of nausea swept through her.

"_Humans?!_ What? _How?_"

Faize shook his head, "I'm not a scientist, I don't understand how it works, but it's what they use to stay young."

"Wait - " Sapphire pushed her food away, no longer hungry, "How did they stay young while they waited for humanity to evolve on their seeded planets?" She knew the answer. But she had to make sure.

"How do you think?" He smiled wryly, "They started by harvesting from prisons and slums and homeless. Only the rich and powerful could live forever. By encouraging their people to expand and colonize other planets, they encouraged their population to grow significantly, so they could produce enough 'expendable' bodies to further their own needs."

"That's disgusting! How did they get away with it?"

Faize spread his hands, "Greed. Secrecy, I expect. By the time people became aware of it, enough powerful people were addicted to living forever, and perpetuated the practice. Now they never need to 'harvest' from within the original race of humans, instead relying on bringing in what they need from ready planets once every few hundred years or so."

Sapphire opened her mouth to ask another question, but was interrupted by the door sliding open.

"Mind if I come in?"

The woman behind the voice was a petite woman, with darker skin (at least compared to Sapphire's own pale complexion), and exotic, dark almond eyes. She was around Sapphire's age, though shorter. She wore a simple outfit, a black top and black pants, with heavy-looking boots. They seemed sort of out of place with her minimalist outfit, but she cut an impressive figure, and stood confidently.

Sapphire would have assumed she was a higher ranking crew member, checking on them, if not for Faize's reaction. He stiffened and stood immediately, the chair making a terrible grinding noise as he did.

"Your Majesty," he said, bowing his head slightly.

_Majesty? _This was the queen he was talking about? The one he served? The one that had brought her subway?

The woman entered the room, smiling at Sapphire, and nodding at Faize. Behind her, loomed an even more impressive figure, a man built like a tank, with pointed ears and red-blonde hair. He must have been six feet tall, and he towered over the queen he was escorting. As he shifted his weight, Sapphire noticed in wonder that he had two great golden brown wings.

Faize stiffened again, but this time it had nothing to do with respect. He glared insolently at the newcomer.

Sapphire glanced back and forth between the two men. The new one was obviously a splice as well, but she had no idea what he was spliced _with_. The tension between the two was palpable. The woman was also watching the men, with an irritated look on her face.

"_Gentlemen._" She said forcefully, giving Faize an admonishing look, and flicking her escort on his ear. He flinched, and offered her a brief smile, but didn't take his eyes off of Faize.

"Is it really so hard for you two to get along?" She said, snapping her fingers between the two of them, "I know cats and dogs aren't supposed to get along, but this is getting a bit cliche."

Her escort laughed, finally breaking eye contact, "It's a cliche for a reason, Majesty."

"Yes, well, we don't need for this to turn bloody," she said, "We have company."

"_I_ wouldn't be the one bleeding,_" _ he muttered, but he moved to stand protectively behind her.

Ignoring him, she stuck a hand out to Sapphire.

"Hi, my name's Jupiter Jones," she said in a mock valley-girl voice, as they shook hands. "Pleased to meet you."

Sapphire couldn't help but smile in response. "Uhh, I'm Sapphire, but I get the feeling that you know that."

Jupiter laughed, and jabbed a thumb backwards at the man behind her. "This is Caine Wise, he's... Well, he's my boyfriend, and self-appointed bodyguard."

Sapphire's eyebrows shot into her forehead. She was about to open her mouth to blurt 'But he's a splice!', but the scowl that flickered past her face in response to Sapphire's surprised look made her refrain from commenting.

"Uhh," Sapphire said, searching for something to say, "Nice to meet you. Thanks for the food."

Jupiter grinned. "Faize had been tracking you for a while, so we knew exactly what sort of sandwich you'd like."

"Yeah. It was good," she replied awkwardly.

"I'm sure you're wondering what's going on," Jupiter said, moving closer to the table that Sapphire and Faize were standing at, but she was interrupted by Caine sweeping a wing in front of her.

"Seriously Caine?" She said, exasperated, "He's not going to hurt me!"

"He's a mercenary!"

"So were you!" She retorted, turning on him, "You vetted this ship and crew, and they vetted him."

"Every Ossumurr I've ever worked with has always been a turncoat – they only care about their own agenda." He flared his wings defensibly.

"I have _never_ broken a contract!"

"Yeah, instead you find a loophole it in so can get away with not doing your job!"

"That's a lie and you know it!"

Sapphire felt anger bubbling up inside of her. She hated bullying, and this was none too dissimilar to altercations in high school. "Why don't you back off?" She stepped up to stand next to Faize, who was growling deep in his chest, his hands tightened in fists at his side.

Caine was inches from Faize, glowering at him, his own more baritone growl playing an odd harmony.

Jupiter stepped up between the two and tried to push them apart, but both were so focused on hating each other that they didn't even notice.

"Wait a second," Sapphire said, "Why am I even defending you?" She stepped away from everyone, "_You_ kidnapped me!" she pointed at Faize, then turned her accusing glare at Jupiter.

"And _you_ told him to!"

"If I hadn't grabbed you, you'd be dead by now!" Faize snapped at her.

"_Everyone SHUT UP!_"yelled Jupiter suddenly, drowning out the growls and accusations. The room was brought to a stand still.

"You," she pointed at Caine and then shoved him backwards, "Need to back off and give Faize a chance,"

"But -"

"NO BUTS." She whirled around to Faize. She didn't shove him, but the look of frustration and anger she levelled at him was enough to make him step back.

"You. I trust you, but I also trust Caine's instincts. I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, and I want you to continue as Sapphire's guardian. But I also need you to not be so ready to rip Caine's throat out when he pisses you off."

"He start-"

"_I don't care._" She said firmly, "He's also your commanding officer. You have to respect him."

"And you!" She finally turned to Sapphire, who was standing in awe of her tirade, impressed by her ability to take command of two creatures who could have easily broken her in two. She braced herself for her own tongue lashing, but Jupiter's angry posture faded, and she shared a long-suffering smile with her.

"Let's take a walk."

Sapphire knees wobbled in relief. "I can do that."

Jupiter gestured for Sapphire to follow her out the door, but stopped as both Caine and Faize stepped up to follow them.

"_Alone,_" She said, blocking the door.

They both sputtered about 'safety' and 'contingencies', but Jupiter cut them off.

"I trust this crew. They have been loyal and performed above and beyond for the past year. Don't follow us."

"But-" they said in unison.

"Zip it!" she held up a finger and stopped them before they could start. "See? You agree on something. Why don't you start with that and _maybe_ you guys can stop measuring your dicks and actually get along."

With that crude analogy, Jupiter and Sapphire left the men with slack jaws, both unable to figure out a way to respond. They left the room into the hallway, and the automatic door swooshed closed behind them.


	4. Chapter 3 - Explanations

**Chapter 3**

Jupiter walked briskly at first, muttering something under her breath, in a language that _sounded_ Russian, but she couldn't be sure.

Sapphire rushed to keep up, but couldn't help but fall behind as she kept seeing new and amazing things. Crew scurried by, bowing to Jupiter occasionally, but ignoring her. They wore uniforms for the most part, but each outfit seemed tailored to their task. About half of the people she saw appeared to be splices, but she couldn't identify most, they were moving on too quickly for her to look closely.

She saw one person laying on their back on a small hovering platform near the ceiling in the hallway, clearly working on some electronics. He was muttering to himself, in some alien language, using tools so bizarre she couldn't even begin to guess their function.

Jupiter seemed to notice that Sapphire was lagging behind, because she stopped and came back to retrieve her.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting how amazing this must be to you." Jupiter smiled warmly, "It's only been a year since I took power, and I'm already used to all of this." She spread her arms to indicate the ship and crew.

"A year?" Sapphire sagged, suddenly tired and just _done. _"Will you tell me what's going on? Why am I here? Faize started to explain, but... I still don't get it."

"Follow me, I've got a wonderful view from my quarters"

The room they entered was much the same as the one Sapphire had woken up in. The sheets were nicer, the bed larger, and the window was was _massive_, but otherwise it was identical.

"This is a queens room?" Sapphire asked incredulously. She felt like it should be covered in lace and gold and _frilly_ things.

"I actually don't spend much time here, I spend most of my time at home – in Chicago."

"_Chicago?_"

"I know, right? I share a room with my mom and aunt, even."

"How does that.. _Why?_"

Jupiter moved to the window, and slid it open. Laid out before them was the stars – millions of them. There was no planet in view, but instead an unobstructed view of _the rest of the galaxy._ Sapphire was blown away by the beauty, and the countless stars, and even, far, far off in the distance, barely visible, other galaxies.

"Faize told you about the youth serum, right?"

"Y-yeah," Sapphire replied, still distracted. "But that's as far as he got."

Jupiter leaned against the window, gazing out as she spoke.

"Because Genetics played such an important role in the progress of the humans out in space, they practically worship it as a religion. It's not uncommon for a person to leave their fortunes to their reincarnation, in the off chance one should appear, _instead_ of, or maybe as well as, their biological heirs."

"Reincarnation? Isn't that a little mystical for a scientifically advanced people?"

"You'd think that, but a reincarnation has to be genetically identical to the original. As a result, it's incredibly rare. Astronomically rare."

"That's like... I can't even comprehend how rare that must be."

"But it happens. And when you're running around seeding planets, ensuring that _trillions_ of humans are evolving around the galaxy, it's going to happen. And it did. I was the reincarnation of one of the most powerful person in the galaxy.

But I had no idea, not until Caine saved me. See, the Abrasax family had three heirs – Balem, Kalique, and Titus. They had each been left a portion of her empire, but the most valuable planet, was left to Balem." She sighed.

"That planet was earth."

"Earth is valuable?"

"We have what? 7.1 billion people on the planet? That could keep a hundred people alive for a million years or so. Yeah, it's valuable."

"Jesus."

"Yeah."

"So you were the reincarnation. And you just came along and took it?"

Jupiter laughed, "It wasn't that easy. Balem tried to kill me, Caine was hired by Titus to bring me to him, he had his own agenda, which, by the way, also involved killing me. While I was being taken to Titus, Kalique kidnapped me, then Caine got me back. _Then_ I claimed earth, if only just to prevent it from being harvested, Then Titus got to me, manipulated me and almost killed me. Caine got me out just in time again, nearly dying in the process. _Then_ Balem kidnapped my family and threatened to kill them if I didn't give him earth."

Sapphire was speechless. She couldn't think of anything to say – how could she?

"What happened next?" she managed.

"Well, I realized that giving him earth would kill billions, and I... I couldn't do that. I refused, how could I not? After that, there was... An altercation, Caine rescued my family, and again, Balem tried to kill me. He didn't succeed. We got out safely, and I returned to earth."

"What happened to Balem?"

"Balem is no longer a concern."

"Ah."

"What does this have to do with me?"

"All _I_ wanted to do was live my life. But I was now the queen of the Abrasax fortune, and there's nothing Kalique or Titus can do to get it back. They have their own fortunes of course, but I 'stole' everything their mother left to them.

I realized that I couldn't just stop with protecting earth. There are hundreds and thousands of planets out there -" She waved at the window, at the not so empty space.

"They all have _life._ Some farther along than others, and I have the power to do something about it.

"I had no shortage of allies – Only the rich live forever, and many people resent that, and are happy to help. But to fight the rich, you need rich allies."

"That still doesn't explain me." Sapphire was getting frustrated now, all of this _talking_, and she still had no real idea why she had been dragged into all of this. For a brief second she thought she might also be a reincarnation, but that was ridiculous. The odds of _two_ people from earth – from America, no less – _both_ being reincarnations of powerful, rich space people?

"So we started looking. First we looked for records of the various monarchs that had died and left their fortunes to their reincarnations. Then we started looking for people with exact genetic matches."

Sapphire stared.

"No way."

"Yes way."

Sapphire expected Jupiter to laugh, but she didn't. The young woman turned and gave her a serious look.

"We found one. On a planet only a little more advanced than ours. By the time we got to her, she was dead. It seemed that someone had figured out our plan, and she was killed. Well, it _looked_ like a suicide, but we knew better.

"We found another, on a tribal planet. That was when I sent Faize to protect him. Things went bad though, and a lot of people died."

"Faize didn't though, he survived."

"He got out of there just in time. He was barely alive when we got to him."

"What happened?"

"That's... His story to tell, I think." Jupiter looked thoughtful, "But you should know that I trust him."

"Caine doesn't."

This time, she did laugh. "The past year has been tough. The reason I decided to start this crazy crusade? Four attempts to kill me, in just a month."

"Four?"

"Four."

"Shit."

Jupiter took a deep breath, "Yeah. Caine wasn't around during the last one. He's still a little pissy about that one. Doesn't trust anyone he doesn't know personally.

"So, I decided to fight back. It's been... Hard. Losing people is never easy."

"So am I one of those reincarnations?" She almost didn't _want_ to ask, but she had to. Why else would she have been brought all the way out here?

"Yes. The Rakelm estate. Irada Rakelm, she left her planets and fortune to her only son, Ardest."

"And her reincarnation."

"Yup. She died a few hundred years ago, but _apparently_ that there's no statute of limitations of this whole reincarnation thing."

Jupiter swung around to give Sapphire a measuring stare.

"If you claim her title, you'll have control over 6 planets, one of which currently supports human life. Two were harvested not long before Irada's death, and the other three are, well, they're still evolving. It's a small empire, compared to a lot of others, but it's an empire none-the-less."

"I'd be in charge of a planet with humans on it? How on earth can _I_ deal with that?" Sapphire's voice rose shrilly as she worked out just what was being asked of her.

"And.. And – Murder! People have tried to _kill_ you. _Repeatedly!_ What you're asking me to do.. I might die!"

"I know," she replied simply.

"I can't be held responsible for a planet! Billions of people! You want me to protect them?"

"Less than a billion, actually. The planet is smaller, and they're about where we were during the Victorian times."

"Oh, yes, that makes it _so_ much easier, thanks," she replies sarcastically, "And what happens if I say no? And just, go home."

Jupiter turned away, facing the expanse of space again, "We erase your memory, send you back. Move on to the next reincarnation we find."

"I die though, don't I?" Sapphire slumped against the wall, shaking. The sedative had apparently completely worn off – she was well and truly frightened now. It was all just too much for her to take.

"Probably. We can't protect you forever, and Ardest has already sent one team of keepers – even though I banned them from coming back to earth – to kill you. He won't stop there."

"How could I not do this though?" Sapphire said quietly. The ship must have changed its orbit around Earth, since it was coming into view again. Seeing the planet, in all its glory made her think.

"If I say no, then I'm just throwing away those people. _Humans_. They might not be the humans from Earth, but they're still people. People that deserve a future. If I say no, and let them be harvested, then I'm no better than the ones doing the harvesting, because I didn't try to stop it."

Sapphire stood up straight, her heart pounding in apprehension, and she wondered if she wasn't making a terrible mistake. It was reckless, diving into and intergalactic war, but she _had_ to do it. When she saw the earth for the second time, the sun rising over Japan and China, something clicked. She felt a fierce _need_ to protect the people of this planet. Allying with Jupiter would help both earth _and_ the one she would claim.

She had no choice, really.

"I'll do it. Tell me what I need to do."

Jupiter smiled widely. "It's a pain in the ass, but-"

She was cut off by a screeching bell noise. It undulated wildly, low and high all at once.

"What the hell is that?"

Before Jupiter could reply, Caine burst into the room, looking both furious and worried. The door _swooshed_ shut behind him, and he rushed inside, spreading his wings widely as he approached the women.

"There's been a murder, and I can't find Faize."


	5. Chapter 4 - Attacked

**Chapter 4**

A jolt of fear run down Sapphire's spine.

"You can't find Faize?" Said Jupiter incredulously, "I thought you could like, smell _everything?_"

Caine growled under his breath.

"I lost his scent."

"_How?_"

"If I knew, then I'd know how to fix it, now wouldn't I?"

"Ahmi, locate Faize Tanyir," said Jupiter abruptly, ignoring Caines muttering.

"What-" started Sapphire, but before she could finish the sentence, the same computer voice from when she woke up replied.

"Faize Tanyir is not aboard the vessel."

"W_hat?_" Jupiter shrilled.

"Ahmi, are all escape pods accounted for?" Caine asked, "There should be ten," he said to the ladies.

"There are ten escape pods." The computer's voice was mellow and soothing.

"What ships are currently in the docking bay?"

"_Heart of the Pack_ and _Shadow-Maker_ are currently docked._"_

"He's still on board then," said Caine, "Those are our ships. He couldn't have left the ship otherwise."

"He must have removed his tracker," reasoned Jupiter, though she looked unsettled.

Caine snorted, "A splice's tracker is implanted in the back of the neck, _into our spine_," he explained, "Even I'd be impressed if he managed to remove his without killing himself."

"What _actually_ happened?" Asked Jupiter, looking both frightened and exasperated.

Before Caine could explain, the door opened again, and he immediately moved in front of both of the ladies, spreading his wings to block them from view.

"Y-Your Majesty?" it was one of the crew members. He looked intimidated by Caine, but he seemed determined to do his duty.

"Yes?" She said, pushing Caine's wing out of the way impatiently.

"T-the captain is requesting your presence in the cargo bay. She asked that you bring Caine Wise as well."

"Of course, we'll be down right away." She moved to follow the young man, but Caine insisted on leading. "That's where I found officer Theely, and Faize could be anywhere."

"You should come too, Sapphire," she said, "You'll be safest with us."

She nodded and followed. She was tempted to run – go hide in her room – but if it _was_ Faize who was out to get her, she doubted that she'd be safe there. She was frightened now, very much so, but Jupiter trusted Caine, and since she wasn't exactly a fighter herself, her best hope to protect herself would be to attach herself to someone else who was well protected.

This time, travelling through the ship was less full of wonder, and more full of shadows and fear. She followed furtively, looking all over for danger, feeling vulnerable. Caine was in full 'protector' mode, and was sweeping through the hallways like a wolf on the hunt.

The Cargo bay was huge, packed wall to wall with canisters, cartons and what looked like oil drums. Narrow walk-ways were spaced between the boxes, which formed great walls of metal.

Caine led them through the maze of supplies, his wings held tightly to his body. He stopped at one intersection and waved Jupiter and herself ahead. It was a dead end, but a middle-aged man was crouched at the back of it, examining something. He had two officers with him, one a human woman, a little older than Sapphire, but build like a rugby player, thick, and pure muscle. The other was a splice, but she couldn't tell what. He had an angular, hard face, and intense eyes that flicked all over the place as the two of them stood watch. He had wings much like Caine's, a dark brown, tipped in white. A bird of prey, perhaps?

Neither of them were paying attention to the captain, who stood as the three of them approached. They looked outwards and upwards, their alien guns held comfortable but ready.

"Ah, Your Majesty, thank you for coming," He bowed slightly to Jupiter. He turned to Sapphire and nodded politely.

"This is Captain Toridar. He's the... Captain. Of this ship."

"Yeah, I think I worked that out," said Sapphire sarcastically, then she clamped her hands over her mouth.

"Oh god, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that." She winced, resisting the desire to bang her head on a wall. What was she thinking? Snarking at a queen _and_ a captain.

"Nice to meet you," she mumbled, embarrassed and intimidated by the whole situation. Why was she even here? They didn't need her to examine a dead body. She didn't even want to see it. The thought of _actually _seeing a corpse gave her the willies. A knot of nausea began to form in the pit of her stomach.

"Caine, I'd like your report. When, exactly, did you notice Faize missing?"

He growled slightly in response, but straightened his back, and stood at attention as he spoke.

"Her Majesty asked for some time alone with Ms Nelson, and after they departed, Faize also took his leave. I didn't trust his motives, I never have, so I followed him. He was heading towards the cargo bay. I saw him go in, but after that I lost his scent." He looked seriously angry now, his jaw clenched.

"I searched the hold, but I couldn't find him. I told Security Officer Theely to guard the entrance until I could come back with the stealth resonators."

He held up a small device in the palm of his hand. It was a sleek silver sphere, with dark green stripes radiating from the centres, creating a curved grid pattern across it.

"When I got back, he was gone, and I could smell blood. I tracked the blood trail, and found him here. That's when I paged Captain Toridar, and came to get you, your Majesty."

The captain ground his jaw in thought. "Why didn't you page me when you first noticed the Ossumurr missing?"

Jupiter stepped up before Caine could answer. "That's my fault, Captain, I had told Caine that Faize was someone to trust. Until this death, Caine was acting on suspicions, but had no real reason to consider Faize a danger."

The captain huffed into his scruffy beard. "Understandable."

He sighed, "Theely was a good man, a good officer. He'll be missed."

"How did he die?" Asked Jupiter. Sapphire was please to notice that Jupiter didn't seem too interested in getting a closer look at the crumpled body, shoved unceremoniously into a gap between crates. That meant that _she_ didn't have to get closer either.

"His skull has been smashed, and his throat has been cut. It's hard to tell which killed him, not until we can do the autopsy, but I'd place credits on the throat being the killing blow."

"Why's that?" asked Sapphire, curious, despite herself.

The captain gave her a grim smile, "If it was just the throat, we could probably revive him, as long as we found him quickly enough. But if you damage the brain too badly, it's just not possible. There's not enough to save."

Sapphire nodded, but felt sick. She tried to take a step back, to get farther away from the blood and death, but Caine was still standing guard in behind them, and she _also_ somewhat afraid of him too, and he didn't move to let her escape.

The Captain nodded at Caine.

"You gonna use that thing, or what?"

"With pleasure," he growled, squishing the device between his hands. It clicked and began to glow a bright fluorescent green. As he pulled his hand away, the light was flung outwards, and a faint green circle of light surrounded them for 15 feet in all directions, with the tiny sphere at its centre.

"If the bastard's stealthed, this'll find him," he said, and turned out of the aisle. As he carried it along, the circle moved with him, illuminating everything within it in a subtle green glow. As they wandered through the maze, Caine turned into every aisle far enough to check every nook and cranny, but he grew more and more frustrated as his searched came up empty.

"He must have gotten out," Captain Toridar said, "There was a gap between you leaving, Caine, and your return. Faize must have slipped out before you came back."

"But why now?" asked Jupiter, "He had plenty of opportunity to kill Sapphire, or myself. He could have done this ages ago. Why wait until he was trapped on board the ship?"

"He's an Ossumur, " snarled Caine, "Can't expect him to have a whole lot of foresight."

"I can't help but feel that you're being racist," said Jupiter, "But I'm not sure if it applies here."

He smirked, but said nothing.

Sapphire could do nothing but follow along. She felt incredibly out of place. The captain was silent, but alert. He had a small pistol drawn and ready, while his two security officers followed closely behind, with their larger guns cradled in their arms, covering the rear. Jupiter followed Caine confidently, who lead the small group, and then Sapphire bunched up in the middle. She had no weapon, no fighting skills, just a growing apprehension.

Caine swore under his breath as they reached the entrance to the cargo hold.

"We'll search the entire ship, if we have to," said the Captain grimly, "Might I suggest we secure Her Majesty in her quarters while we sweep for our traitor?"

"I will _not_ be secured," objected Jupiter, "Faize is my problem too, I-"

"No, I agree with Captain Toridar," injected Caine, "We can sweep it for security, then lock the door. It'll be safer."

As they marched through the hallways, Sapphire noticed that the crew was no where to be seen.

"Where is everyone?" she asked, fearing the worst, and that Faize had gone on a rampage, killing the entire crew.

"That alarm was a signal for all non-essential crew to return to their quarters, and for all security personnel to go to their battle-stations."

"Oh."

She was still having trouble believing Faize had done this. If he wanted her dead, he could have killed her in that alley. Or in her room. While he _had_ kidnapped her, and she still felt a bubble of resentment for that, he _had_ kept his promise. He hadn't hurt her. Was he just trying to get an opportunity to kill Jupiter instead? Why kill the security officer? What did he gain from that? She sighed. She had just been thrown into this world of espionage and politics, and she had no idea why anyone did anything. She couldn't even begin to comprehend it all.

"Sapphire's room is closer, so I'm locking you both in here," said Caine as they approached the door, "Just let me check it first."

"Fine," grumped Jupiter, who looked resigned to the fact that Caine was going to have his way. They hadn't even argued, but Sapphire got the impression that the topic of her safety came up frequently – and she always lost.

The door slid open, and Caine slipped in, with Jupiter and Sapphire following close behind, staying in the bubble. The captain stopped at the door and faced himself outwards to guard from the hallway.

The room was just big enough that the bubble didn't see all of it immediately. As the field fell over the last corner, a shape flickered into view, clinging to the upper corner near the ceiling.

As fast as thought, before Jupiter or Sapphire could react, the shape launched itself from the wall, over Caine's head. Up and over, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Sapphire could only watch in horror at the figure moved faster than Caine could react. He had his gun out, but the attacker was already behind him, and he didn't have enough time to turn. The Captain was unaware, his attention directed outside, and no one had even made a sound.

They pushed off from the ceiling, with a weapon in each hand – Guns? Knives? He was moving too fast to be sure. He was headed right at the two women, face obscured by a mask, glittering black goggles covering their eyes.

Inches before impact, another shape materialized, fading into view as if its speed was ripping away invisibility. With a jolt, Sapphire saw faint blue-grey spots on it face.

Faize intercepted the attacker, diverting his course, where the pair of them slammed into a wall. Caine stepped between the threat and the two woman, both still paralysed shock, knocking them backwards with his wing.

Faize and the assassin was in a deadly brawl, each moving faster than they could follow, except maybe Caine, for he raised his gun and fired carefully, two shots in quick succession.

The assassin dodged one, swiping at Faize's face with a short knife, but caught the second one as Faize simultaneously slashed across his throat with his claws.

The assassin crumpled to the ground, dead or unconscious, Sapphire couldn't tell. She hoped it was dead.

Faize was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily, removing the metal claws he had attached to his hands.

"You shot me!" He accused Caine, as he noticed a trickle of blood down his side.

Sapphire, finally unfrozen, leaped forward to help the wounded splice.

Captain Toridar was in the room now, yelling for his guards to get the doctors.

"I did _not_ shoot you,"Caine countered, holstering his gun, and pulling Jupiter close. "I shot the assassin." He turned a concerned face towards his queen.

"Are you alright?" he embraced her tightly, running a hand through her hair. She smiled up at him and gave him an affectionate squeeze. "I'm fine."

Sapphire looked away, embarrassed and a little jealous to be seeing their moment on intimacy. She was shaking with adrenaline herself, but had no one to lean on. She instead focused on her wounded saviour.

"You fired twice, and only hit the spider once," Said Faize shakily, as his knees buckled. Sapphire was there, looping his arm over her shoulder. Caine instantly appeared on his other side, taking the rest of hit weight.

"My other shot missed you both, friend," assured Caine as he helped lower Faize onto Sapphires bed. He nodded at the smoking dent in the wall siding.

Faize swore under his breath in some alien tongue as his arms gave out when he tried to prop himself up. "Poison!" he managed to gasp.

"It's a spider splice," confirmed the Captain, who had pulled the mask off of the assassin to reveal a thin faced woman. "Black Widow, by splicers mark."

Faize was fading fast. His face was turning blue, and he was struggling for breath. The wound itself wasn't bleeding all that much, but the poison seemed to be spreading quickly.

He tried to reach for his jacket, but his arm fell helpless to his side. "Pocket," he wheezed, "Anti-venom."

Sapphire ripped his jacket open to reveal a dozen pockets sewn into the inside, each labelled with tiny, precise stitches in a language she couldn't read.

"That one!" Said Caine, pointing to a pouch right next to her hand. She grabbed at it, and pulled out a tiny device, a vial attached to some sort of dispenser.

"Pull the cover off!" He yelled, as he struggled to hold down Faize, who was starting to go into convulsions. "Stick it in his neck!"

Heart beating so fast she thought it would explode, she ripped at the the lid covering the needle with shaking hands. With no hesitation, she jabbed it into his pale neck, hoping to god that she didn't need to hit a blood vessel. The pressure of the stab triggered it to dispense, and with a loud _hiss_ the vial emptied into his body.

Caine continued to hold him down, while the rest of them looked on in anticipation. His seizures slowly lessened, and just as a team of doctors rushed in, his breathing, while still ragged, was almost back to normal. He was barely conscious, fighting to stay awake, but he was able to smile warmly at Sapphire and said "Thank you," before he surrendered himself to oblivion.


	6. Chapter 5 - Redeemed

**Author's Note:** Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. Thank so much to everyone reading this so far! It's a silly story I had in my head, and I'm loving that so many of you are enjoying it. Thanks!

**Chapter 5**

"We'll have to get him to the infirmary," said the doctor, who was looking at the discarded vial. "Is the spider still alive?"

"No," said the captain, rising from checking her pulse, "But we can fix that."

The doctor nodded at his two assistants, who bustled the unconscious Faize into a stretcher. Sapphire and Jupiter each had their own attendant, who was scanning them over with a device that Sapphire was pretty sure was some sort of tri-corder.

"Good," said Caine with satisfaction, "We can revive her and find out how the hell she got on board this ship."

Sapphire was about to comment on bringing people back from the dead, but then she remembered the captains comments from earlier.

She started to shake all over. She had just watched someone _die. _She nearly died herself! And then Faize almost died, and _she_ had been the one to save him. It was all happening too fast. Dizziness overwhelmed her, and she had an intense need to sit immediately. She stumbled to sit on the bed, as her alarmed nurse followed her.

"You're just in shock, lovey," she said, helping her to sit down. "Drink this, and you'll feel better."

She was handed a tiny pouch full of liquid the colour of a robin's chest, and the nurse ripped the tab off the top. With shaking hands, Sapphire tipped her head back and downed it in one gulp. It trickled down her throat like hot tea, warming as it went. Her shaking levelled out, and she felt like she could breathe again. She smiled weakly at the nurse. "Thanks."

One of the Captains guards, the bird-like one, put a pair of cuffs around the assassin's wrists. He pressed a few buttons on them, and the body of the splice began to glow. The guard hauled her into the air, and she floated along like a balloon. He swung her up, and dropped her unceremoniously onto the stretcher.

As she watched, she realized that Faize had already been taken away. She looked around frantically, an intense feeling of needing to be with him nearly overwhelming her. It made her pause a second. Why did she want to be with him?

"You coming?" Asked Jupiter, as she and Caine moved to follow the body out the door. He had one wing protectively draped over her shoulder as they walked side by side. Sapphire felt another pang of jealousy for their easy intimacy.

"Unless you wish to get some rest, we'd understand," he added, "We could find you a less... damaged room."

Sapphire looked around. Her bed had a small pool of blood left behind by Faize, and another, larger pool was smeared against the wall, just below the still smoking crater left by Caine's gun.

"No," she decided, "I need to find out what happened." She _wanted_ to curl up in bed and pass out. Maybe cry a bit. But she also wanted to _know_. She also knew that now wasn't the time to break down. She was a strong-willed woman. She could handle a little chaos and destruction. And death. She glanced back at the blood and gulped. It was also much safer in the radius of a trained fighter.

"Let's go." She waved Jupiter and Caine out the door. Jupiter offered her a understanding smile.

The infirmary was two floors down, and was about as clinical and stark as she imagined it. All of the bed were empty, except the one occupied by Faize.

The splice was still unconscious, but the correct colour at least, had mostly returned to his skin. There was a nurse nearby, yet another splice, but this time is was pretty obvious what she'd been spliced with – a rabbit. Her ears were long and pointed, her skin 'pointed' like a siamese cat, a dark mocha brown on her nose and mouth, ear tips and hands. The rest was a creamy tan colour. Sapphire couldn't help but think she was oddly beautiful, despite her alien appearance.

She bustled around tidying and cleaning, but stayed out of their way.

"Pff, He's still out," snorted Caine, and hopped up to sit on the neighbouring bed. The nurse shot him a dirty look, but didn't say anything.

"Now what?" Asked Sapphire, shifting her weight awkwardly. She didn't want to sit on a bed and muss it up, but there weren't any chairs to sit on.

"He'll wake up any minute now," said Jupiter, who then turned to the nurse. "Can we get a couple of chairs?" She smiled and nodded, and returned a moment later with three lightweight metal folding chairs. They were so low-tech that Sapphire almost laughed. She took the one the nurse handed her, and sat down.

Without saying a word, the nurse held one out to Caine, who looked at the chair, then at her. He smiled slowly.

"The bed is comfy, thanks."

Jupiter laughed, "Take the chair from the poor woman, and let her clean up the mess you made of her bed."

His eyes flickered to Jupiter, and his smile grew wider.

"As you wish." He hopped off the bed and flicked open his chair seamlessly.

"I should have never let him watch Princess Bride," muttered Jupiter.

"What was that?" asked Caine, mischief saturating his voice.

"Nothing, if you know what's good for you."

He was grinning now, his pointed canines clearly visible. He leaned back on the hind legs of the chair, and half opened his wings to help him balance.

"You're in an awfully good mood all of a sudden," commented Jupiter.

He shrugged, "At the moment, we've got a dead assassin, and it appears that Faize isn't the enemy. I still don't like him, but I can at least relax a little bit around him. And he's unconscious right now, so I'm sort of happy about that. Though, I do want to know what happened," he added thoughtfully.

"Stop being so happy," grumbled Faize from the bed, "I'm awake now." He grunted and heaved himself up.

"Are you okay?" Asked Sapphire, jumping to her feet.

Caine snorted, "Of course he's okay. I'd be worried if he _wasn't _okay._"_

"I hate being poisoned," he complained. He looked at Sapphire out of the corner of his eye, and winked. "I'm fine. Thanks to you."

She blushed furiously, confused as to _why_ she was blushing so much, which only made her face burn even brighter. "It's okay," she mumbled, "You saved mine first."

"Faize," said Jupiter, rescuing her, "What _happened?_"

He sighed, wincing, and swung his feet out from under the blankets.

"Oiy!" snapped the nurse, "Get back in bed! You need at least another hour before you can be on your feet!"

"I'm fine-" he growled, only to be met with an equal growl from the nurse.

Sapphire wasn't the only one surprised by the mettle in the quiet nurse. All four of them looked at her in shock.

"Yes Ma'am," acquiesced Faize, hefting his legs back into the bed and under the blankets. "You both terrify and intrigue me."

The nurse only smiled and turned back to her work.

"Damn." That was Jupiter.

"Yes?" Said Faize, who was looking defiantly at Caine, who looked a little conflicted. "Something to say?"

He coughed. "No, nothing. So, you were saying?" He looked far too interested in Faize's story.

The Ossumur's eyes flicked to the nurse, then back to the others.

"I'm a spy. An Assassin by profession."

"Really? We didn't know!" jeered Caine.

"Hush, let him talk." Jupiter punched him lightly in his shoulder. He only grinned.

It was weird to Sapphire, how much friendlier everyone was being. Caine had been so intimidating before, grumpy and anxious. Now he was almost entirely relaxed, goofing off a bit, and same with Faize. He was much less defensive and twitchy. Here Sapphire was sitting, adrenaline still coursing through her body, unsure if she was going to survive the next ten minutes. How could they be so calm?

Faize glared at the winged splice. "I have a skill set that makes me particularly suited to finding _other_ spies and assassins. I also happen to have certain unique equipment to help me with this."

Caine sat up at that. "What kind of unique equipment?"

"The kind that can't be easily caught by that stealth resonator of yours."

Caine growled, suddenly no longer as friendly, "It's designed to break through every possibly stealth tech out there."

"Exactly. Which is why I developed one specifically to get around it." He held up his hand to stave off Caine's outburst of frustration, "Don't worry, I only made one, and I kept it for myself." Faize grinned a toothy grin, showing off his own sharpened canines, "Wouldn't do for my competition to get their hands on this."

A low rumbling was coming from Caine until Jupiter swatted him on the wing. "Jesus Caine, calm down. Let him finish." The growl abruptly stopped, and he leaned back in his chair, mollified.

"Like I said, I made this tech for me, and even powered down, it constantly looks for the stealth fields of any potential attackers. When Your Majesty and Lady Sapphire left her quarters, I also left, but before I got too far, I noticed two things.

First, my sensors picked up a shield. Someone was nearby, and they were cloaked. Secondly, I noticed this Oaf trying to follow me."

Caine opened his mouth to retort, but a restraining hand on his forearm stopped him.

Sapphire was still stuck on the 'Lady' part. Was she a Lady? She wasn't exactly very 'proper', but she had agreed to take on this fiasco, even if she was now regretting it a little bit.

"I knew that in order to both lose the dog, _and_ follow the trail, I'd have to stealth myself. My range is only about 3 meters, so I couldn't even communicate what I was doing without leaving the trail or revealing myself. I could only hope that I wasn't noticed as missing while I tracked him. I followed the sensor into the Cargo hold, hoping to corner him, But Caine was more observant than I gave him credit for. He saw me go into the cargo, and planted a guard on the door." He sighed.

"While I was tracking him, I couldn't actually see him. It's sort of like a primitive dowsing rod, I only know the general direction. He couldn't see me either, but he noticed the guard, and seemed to know that he was trapped. I followed his trail to the guard, but he was dead before I could react quickly enough to save him. Unfortunately, my trying revealed me, and he panicked and ran out of my range. Caine was the one that led me to where he dragged the body. The assassin was nearby, and I picked up _her_ trail, as I now knew her to be a spider splice. She was quick, deadly. Faster than I was. She got ahead of your resonators, and I lost her again." He growled a little, more of an angry sigh than anything else.

"I knew her target was probably one of the ladies, so I stuck close to you, still unable to reveal myself, since I didn't know how far away she was, and knowing that until we caught her, you wouldn't believe me and leave yourselves open to attack while you were focused in the wrong direction."

"My shield still needs some work, and if I move too quickly, even the resonators will pick it up. I had to stay behind your bubble. I followed you all the way back to Sapphire's room, when the sensor went off again. I saw the spider, and I reacted. You know the rest."

Caine huffed, scratching at his beard. "I believe you."

"Really?" echoed Faize and Jupiter together. They both looked incredulous.

"Not that I'm going to argue with you, when I agree, but you don't usually make up your mind like that." stated Jupiter, eyeing him suspiciously.

He only smiled that slow, charming smile of his at her. Sapphire was glad that the smile wasn't aimed at her. Alien or not, it made her knees wobble. "I asked the wonderful nurse over there to give him a shot of Lerinobium."

Jupiter looked confused, but Faize immediately sat up in outrage. "That's... Not against the law," he grumbled, defeated, "And while I would have likely done the same, I'm still angry," he finished, disgruntled.

"What's Lerinobium," asked Sapphire, confused.

"Ah! I remember now," exalted Jupiter, "It's a truth serum of sorts. If he had tried to lie, he'd have gotten violently sick, right?"

Caine nodded. "It's not exactly moral, but necessary. Toridar is likely using it as we speak to interrogate the spider."

"Hold on a sec, detour," said Sapphire, unable to hold off the question any longer, "Why do you keep saying spider? Don't you mean it's some sort of _alien_ spider-like thing? Like how Faize isn't a snow leopard or a cheetah, but something _like_ a snow leopard or cheetah?"

Faize laughed a bit. "I can answer that."

"Across the galaxy, a lot of shapes and animals tend to re-occur. In Carbon-based life forms, at least. And with the guidance of the original humans engineering planets to sustain life, it happens more and more often. Caine, for instance, isn't exactly a wolf, but he might as well be. Something like wolves tend to appear on nearly every human planet, just like variation of cats and rodents and birds are going to always show up. Successful shapes will continue to evolve, simply because it's successful.

"Core insect groups tend to repeat themselves too, like spiders, and-"

"Spiders are arachnids," said Jupiter and Sapphire at the same time. They giggled as Faize sighed.

"Okay, fine, things with exoskeletons then, tend to repeat themselves." He glared pointedly at the girls, inviting them to interrupt.

"And then some animals, like bees, are intentionally cultivated to remain the same across planets. Bees are actually _not_ native to any planets bearing human life, except for the _original_ planet. They found that Bees were a necessary building block to a successful planet, and they'd be introduced to every planet they seeded."

"Huh." Sapphire mulled that over. "_Are_ there life forms other than carbon?"

"Yeah, there's -"

_Brngggg Brnnnng_!

Sapphire started and she fumbled for her pocket it surprise.

"Why is my phone ringing?! I'm in space!"

Jupiter let out a hearty laugh, "We've rigged up the ship to be able to send and receive calls," she said over the sound of the drums in the ring tone, "Since my family doesn't know about this. Go ahead and answer it."

_Deep in de ocean, dead and cast away,_ sang the phone. Sapphire looked anxious.

"It's Kelsey. _Shit_, we had plans tonight! What do I say?"

"Anything but the truth," Caine nodded at the cell phone, "We don't know if we can trust all of your friends."

_Where innocence is burned, in flames._

Sapphire looked irritated at the implication, but took a deep breath and answered the phone.

"Heeey Kelsey, I am _so _sorry,"

"Saph! Jesus, Where the hell are you? You sound all tinny."

"Ah, yeah, I'm, uh, Something came up, I won't be able to make it tonight."

"The hell does that mean? We've been planning this girls night for a _week. _It was your idea!"

Jupiter caught her attention, and whispered, "Tell her you got sick!" Sapphire nodded.

"Look, I'm sorry Kelsey, but I think I got food poisoning or something, I feel like shit."

"Food poisoning? Balls. Why don't we come over to your place then," she said cheerfully, "Then you can be close to the toilet, and we can still have our girls night."

"That's not going to work," said Sapphire quickly, trying to remember all the symptoms she had when she actually _had_ food poisoning.

"I'm sweating buckets here, and I'm running a fever," she tried to sound run down, "And I don't even know for sure it's food poisoning. It could be the flu too."

"Oh ugh, stay away from me!" laughed her friend, "all right lady, you win this round. Feel better, see you next week!"

"Thanks," said Sapphire weakly.

"Love you!"

"Love you," she mumbled, and hung up. For a moment, Sapphire actually looked ill. "I don't like lying."

Jupiter looked sympathetic, "I know, it sucks, but you're going to get _real_ good at it soon."

Suddenly tired and exhausted, Sapphire looked over at her new friends. "What now?"

"Well, that story should give you a few days. I think we should go claim your title."

"Claim my title?"

Faize groaned, "I hate that planet."

Caine grinned, "Wonderful. You should be all better just in time to escort your Lady around it."

"In order to claim your title, we have to... jump through a few hoops. It's a pain in the ass," grimaced Jupiter, "But I've done it before, and we should be able to make it a bit easier. Maybe."

Faize got to his feet, and stretched his back, grumbling.

"How... How long will it take us to get there?"

"Oh, just an hour or so."

"An _hour?!_"

"Warp speed, baby!" Joked Jupiter, who grabbed Sapphire's arm, "Technology is great. Come on, you need some clothes that _don't_ scream 'primitive' "

"These clothes aren't primitive!"

She didn't respond. She just smiled and continued to drag her away.


End file.
